Characterization of the vital properties of tissue (for example, concentrations of deoxy- and oxy-hemoglobin, melanin, scattering coefficient) is important for personal wellness monitoring as well as diagnosis of diseases and complications. For example, anemia, polycythemia, and other diseases call for frequent hemoglobin testing and monitoring. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), anemia affects nearly 2 billion people or roughly 30% of the world's population. For women, menometrorrhagia, or extended bleeding from the uterus, is one of the more frequent reasons that doctors send patients to the lab for hemoglobin test. Diabetics can suffer from reduced feeling and loss of awareness of reduced circulation in extremities, which can lead to the development of diabetic lesions as well as other skin diseases, and in some severe cases, amputation.
Existing technology has limited capability to provide sufficiently low-cost, rapid/real-time, effective, and noninvasive means for clinicians and patients to measure and track such conditions. For example, extremity circulation, which can alert to the possible development of conditions (for example, ischemia) before they occur and monitor them during treatment is not sufficiently monitored and tracked, while meeting each of these needs. Likewise, tissue vitals (for example, hemoglobin level and oxygen saturation) are not sufficiently capable of being monitored and tracked, while meeting each of these needs. In contrast, tests to monitor such conditions are usually performed in a hospital lab or clinical facility, requiring significant infrastructure and resources, not accessible in remote regions, resource-scarce communities, or financially struggling communities.
A reflectance optical spectroscopy device, assembly of reflectance optical spectroscopy device, and a process of using a reflectance optical spectroscopy device that show one or more improvements in comparison to the prior art would be desirable in the art.